International French language give Jap uncountable yawns.

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara is sued by French teacher who live in Japan. Because he said last Oct. 19: “I have to say that it should be no surprise that French is disqualified as an international language because French is a language that cannot count numbers. ([…] Because French is a language unfit for number manipulation, it is perfectly normal to contend that it cannot be used for international communications.[…])The governor uttered these remarks during a meeting of a support organization for Tokyo Metropolitan University, which opened in April via a merger of five metro government-run universities and colleges. On Friday, Berkane expressed outrage at Ishihara’s remarks. Ishihara “can say whatever he wants in private, but as governor, he should not make such statements on duty,” he said. Tokyo District Court on July 13, along with 20 other French and Japanese. The plaintiffs are demanding an apology and 500,000 yen each in compensation.
As a Japanese, I am really shame of Shintaro Ishihara’s disparaging remarks about French. I hope French people win this case. But I am really worry after getting compensation, wheather French can count number of money or not by their language.
Judging from Ishihara’s behavior, we, Jap seem to look down on French. But it’s completely opposite. Almost all Jap longing for French. And it’s one of popular dream country. French fashion brand, Chanel, Celine, Cartier, Christian Dior, Hermes are very popular. We always order French-fry instead of “Freedom fry”at Macdnald.
This guy is also one of such French lover. The book that this guy read is French language reference book. He seem to be hard French language student. But you know, French is really difficult for Jap. The reason he open his mouse widely is not for pronunceancion of French language, but for yawning. The reason he is yawing is French language study is too boring. The reason he lost his hair is French language study is too hard. The reason I hope at least he can learn how to count by French language before he dead.

he is hard French language student. so he study even in train.

he seem to really strugle to learn French language.

Judging from his strange shape of mounth, he seem to try to pronounce French language.

He open his mouth so widely and put hand on it, what kind of pronouciation ?

No, he just yawn. even though French pronounciation sound is semilar to yawing voice.\

And finaly he fall sleep while studying French language in train. Myabe is not dead yet. he maybe just fall asleep.

The French are big snobs. When I went to France, and spoke to them, they laugh at my stupid gaijin accent. They’re racist, they fear foreigner, hate American, but still buy their lunch at McDonald’s. Japanese people are still nice to me when I try to talk in their language, and
they smile even when I fuck up.
PS-Hey, Masa. Your English has really been improved. Have you been taking lessons???

HEY! french aren’t snob, maybe it’s just you Raisa that is too much of a red-neck. I’m joking, but every body (in every country) is amused when a gaijin tries to speak in their language. I spent a lot a time abroad to know that.
I am french and i can say that it is true that it’s a difficult language, but there is NO WAY that we can’t count properly! what the hell is that Shintaro Ishihara saying??? I mean we can count just like in english, german, spanish, etc…
I think it’s the japanese way to count, where the words change depending on what your counting
Well, i am not really offended by what that governor said, i just think he doesn’t know what he’s talking about, and that’s a shame for a gov.
PS: Masa, I coming over to Tokyo next month, do you want me to bring you a french fashion brand T-shirt?
=============from MasaManiA
THank you. i apriciate your present mind.

Dumb remark from the governor but an even dumber lawsuit by the plaintiffs. Maybe I should sue for every disparaging remark he’s made about my country?
Anyway, Masa, why would you be ashamed of what Ishihara or any other politician has to say? Come next election, vote for the other candidate or be thankful for term limits. In our age, elected politicians don’t represent the majority of voters anyway.

The French should not be surprised when other people don’t like them-especially Americans. Many times, especially in politics, the French seem to want to disagree with everything that any foreigner says. When it comes to Americans, think, when was the last time France and the US agreed on something? When was the last time the French government did not try to insult the intelligence of Americans when the subject of the US came up in a speech? You can’t continue to insult an entire group of people and still expect them to like you.
That said, the French that I have met that have come to the US to live or for vacation have actually been nice people for the most part. The French that I have met online have been good people to know.
I wonder, is all the hate from France just an act? Must French in large groups be insulting to others because it is some sort of expected norm and they don’t want their fellow French to think less of them? Are the *real* French the nicer people that I have met in smaller groups?
If the large groups and the government in France acted more like the smaller groups of French I have met, maybe Americans and other foreigners would not hate them so much.

I think french hating is more of an american/english thing. I have no opinion of the french, although I heard they will snob you if you can’t speak french in their country, or even if you speak it badly. I think I’d like France though. I’d even like the United States probably, I know all the rest of the whole world hates americans but the ones I talk to online seem to be nice people.

I’m sorry to post again, but i have to answer to “Who ARE the *real* French?”.
Indeed, we have disagreed with the american Gov many times in the past, so what? do we have to say yes to everything you say? especially when you are attacking countries for fake reasons, or when you don’t sign the “no pollution” treaty…
And when we see Americans spilling french wine in the gutter or renaming french fries to freedom fries, well, we can’t help thinking you are not that wise…
anyhow, it is true that a lot of countries tends to think that we’re hateful, well, i can’t do much about that, but as you said, we’re not that obnoxious when you actually meet us.

It’s not about whether the French disagree sometimes or on some points-most other country’s governments do just that. It’s about disagreeing EVERY time, without exception, about anything. If Bush said the sky was blue (I know it’s a long shot…asking him to get the color of the sky correct, but this example is not entirely literal), the French government would turn up its nose and declare that the sky was orange, not blue-all just to argue. Other countries might say the sky was a little cloudy, so maybe a grey-blue.
I’m not saying anyone should agree blindly.
By the way, I wouldn’t spill your wine in the gutter-I don’t buy ANY wine. Be glad that McDonald’s calls the fries freedom fries, now (heart attacks in a greasy, nasty, bite size stick of trans-fats and potato-ewww)-yes freedom to commit slow suicide with clogged arteries. But, if you still like them, the menu says freedom fries, but the customer still asks for french fries in the US. I wouldn’t start to worry unless people start freedom kissing (that sounds creepy, doesn’t it?)

Hi,
I’m french too and i’d like to react to what “Who ARE the *real* French” said.
Maybe french government disagree on many topics with US government. What’s the point if we do not agree with US governement to strike Irak for nothing ?
Why our government will kill civilians for free ?? US government didn’t respect United Nation decision about Irak, keep that in mind. And as French Bat said as least our government have ratified the Kyoto Protocol to limit CO2 emissions. So your government don’t care about environmentals issues, don’t care about civilians (look at Irak now… it sucked before US Army come, but now it sux even more, like 50ish civilians die for nothing everyday). And WHERE THE HELL ARE MASS DESTRUCTION WEAPONS ? Not in Irak imo.
But still, governments are what they are, I’ll not think bad about American people even if their government can sux sometimes (like French government or ANY other else, no one is perfect).
I don’t care if someone is American, French, or whatever, I respect everyone
I know some French people insulting American ones, they just do that cause of their lack of education, that’s all. Nothing to deal with government things or “large” groups thingy…
Some people do this for fun purpose too, and don’t really think what they say

I am actually French, from Paris. What I can say is that France is going down : unemployment at 9 %, low national income (5th international powerful country !!!!). We can also add some crisis such as the riots in November 2005 (most were sons of muslims and blacks immigrans), or the students demonstrations against the CPE (a work contract law). France is not only Romantism, wine, luxury brands, gastronomy…
I often see Japanese tourists in the subway, they’re uttered to see that they’re many homeless, beggars, that streets are dirty, that they’re many robbers, tags. So of course if we show Champs Elysees, Tour Eiffel and the nice quarters of Paris, it’s ok for them, but it doesn’t represent all what Paris is (popular quarters : Montmartre, Belleville, XII…).
I’m doing hard buisiness studies in order to leave this country I almost hate now, and I think I’ll go to Japan.
So France can be seen as a nice country abroad, but if you’d have come here, you wouldn’t have this picture still alive.

I don’t seem why the french don’t die of cirrhosis of the liver from all the wine they drink, and I don’t mean that in a negative way. Can french people
help me out, do a lot of french people have liver trouble?

I’m not saying France and the US should always agree, nor am I only talking about a couple of decades. Think about it…how often have the French agreed with anything the US said or did since they sent the Statue of Liberty to the US as a gift? That’s a long time ago. Also, the level of disagreement-usually it seems that the French government disagrees with the US FIRST out of spite, then SECOND, for an actual reason. If there is a reason to disagree, that’s understandable, but simple spite between 2 countries is childish. Really, what the hell happened so long ago that the French and US governments can’t let go?
JonJon, I feel ya… I’ve lived in Hawaii-nice place to visit, shitty place to live [high prices, relatively low income, monsoon season and the rarity of air conditioning, ‘racism’ against hale (foreigners, esp. whites-Hawaiians don’t really feel like a US state, they still have a monarcy, even if is IS mostly symbolic], shitty schools, etc.).

Well i guess the point is that every government is a bit fuck up, and that it doesn’t really represent the people…
But to go back to the starting issue, the counting probleme, I really have to say that it’s totally ignorant! We count just like everybody else in europe. One, two, three… un, deux trois, what’s the big story???
On the other hand, it’s quiet true that french is a complicated language, and therefor has little chance to become the internationnal language or cummunications…

I agree, it’s a pretty dumb thing to say, but demanding 500,000 yen in ‘compensation’ is even dumber. Seriously, how do they justify this? I think maybe Japan is beginning to develop an American-style petty lawsuit culture, in which everyone sues everyone else for really dumb reasons – it’s already happening over here in the UK.
From my experience Japanese has got a pretty weird numeric system anyway; and what’s with the 1 yen coins Masa? They’re fucking pointless dude!
Still, funny and interesting journalism as always, and great stealth-photography – keep up the good work – ganbatte, man!

hi masa,
i’m from malaysia and this is my first time posting here. i’ve found your site about 2-3 months ago but since you never update, i didn’t post anything then.
yeah!! you have a very nice blog. i like it very much. the way you tell all your stories are very unique and you made it very well. keep it coming man.
btw, can you catch some kawaii japanese girls picture for me? lol.

Hi guys, i’m french and i’m usually defending my country even if i’m conscious of the problems we can find here. About what *real* french says: french people are not against US, it’s a minority like saying all the white americans are busyness men or belong to the KKK.People who stupidly hate americans without reasons are stupid people, they don’t read press or books, they just watch news on tv and think they have enough informations to judge the situation. Another thing is that news have become a show:each channel shows his political opinion in stead of being neutral like should be every reporter (fox news or tf1 are good examples don’t you think?), it’s a shame to see important news shown just in a few seconds or with only one point of view and sport for most of times and with a real army of analyses and specialists (sorry 4 my english). for all french people who answered, we must admit that a lot of french people enjoy criticizing and seeing what’s wrong in everything, may it be in our own country or at the other side of frontiers and we must accept that people like americans who are more patriots than we are have problems to understand that it’s not such a big deal for us. I have to say too taht this lack of pride disappears as an alien dares to criticize our country. on my opinion, we are obsessed by the fact we fought against our king and kill him; since this time we think we have to fight for freedom and justice in stead of thinking about what could be good for us (may 68, car-burnings this winter, strikes in 95, anti cpe strikes…………..). BUT we also have to recognize that friends can talk about their differences and can disagree and that the situation between france and US is far from the situation betweem US and North Korea. Let’s mix our ideas and analyse what different opinions can bring to solve a bad situation. Fuck Guantanamo and Fuck Clearstream and no one is always right. Thanks to Masa to make us evoluate and to let us know his country .Nice to see you back and keep it hard to fuck them deeper and deeper. Drix

“And here I cannot leave this great and good country without expressing my sense of it’s pre-eminence of character among the nations of the earth. A more benevolent people I have never known, nor greater warmth and devotedness in their select friendships. Their kindness and accommodation to strangers is unparalleled, and the hospitality of Paris is beyond anything I had conceived to be practicable in a large city. Their eminence, too, in science, the communicative dispositions of their scientific men, the politeness of the general manners, the ease and vivacity of their conversation give a charm to their society to be found nowhere else. In a comparison of this with other countries, we have the proof of primacy which was given to Themistocles after the battle of Salamis. Every general voted to himself the first reward of valor, and the second to Themistocles. So ask the traveled inhabitant of any nation, In what country on earth would you rather live? — Certainly, in my own where are all my friends, my relations, and the earliest and sweetest affections and recollections of my life. Which would be your second choice? France.” – Thomas Jefferson
“When the government violates the people’s rights, insurrection is, for the people and for each portion of the people, the most sacred of the rights and the most indispensible of duties.?E- Marquis de Lafayette
“If the liberties of the American people are ever destroyed, they will fall by the hands of the clergy.?E- Marquis de Lafayette

Dumb dumb dumb dumb duuuuuuumb!
Doesn’t Japanese use a 10,000 base for large numbers, while pretty much all European languages use a 1,000 base?
Sounds pretty “unfit” to me…
Jap is a hard language to learn also. Very tiring since it makes you want to jerk off to hentai porn so much! You truly need the 10,000 base to count jap masturbations…

Masa, This is off topic about what is being talked about here but anyway.
How are the Japanese public taking the whole Missle test that North Korea is doing? Does anyone really care or is the media making a big deal over it?

masa,
it’s long time i wanna post, but i didn’t take the time to do it so…
design of your blog has change^^
looking good now…
as usual, yours pictures and articles are really nice!
still waiting for new updates!
from france,
jude

In some way, this is the same situation as the business man that vomited in the train.
Both men seek more to life. The vomit man seeks more life by negative action. This French study man seeks it through positive action.
Evan at his age, there is much to life still to be seen. I hope to keep trying new things even when I reach old age. Reading new books is better than vomiting. It is your choice.

Shintaro Ishihara shows also his concerns about contemporary art during the opening of the exhibition dedicated to “la collection Cartier” at the museum of contemporary art of Tokyo. Basically he says that every occidental art is bullshit and degenerate compare to japanese traditional art… no comment.
And for all my beloved american friends, let’s discussed about that more in detail when the U.S returned to a true democracy. We used to love you for all you did for us but now it is time to take a pause and to think about your attitude in front of every other countries…
Old friends can disagree and I am sorry to tell that but for the Iraq question : French were right!

Benoit,
Not everyone in the US has bad attitudes. More then half oppose the war in Iraq. More then half do not like Bush. These are true. A lot of people in the US do see what the rest of the world thinks of America, and we are just as upset. All my friends hate Bush and the war.
However fear of terrorists has allowed this leadership to have power and do what they want. Bush cannot be elected again,as the law says so. Some people like him but they are fooled by fear. Bush says the words freedom and liberty and it makes some people become blind to everything else. I hope the next election will have a better leader.

Burimu> I know that very well, and I can tell you that most french still love americans and make the difference between people and your **** government. In my case I only know brilliant americans (e.g not belonging to jesusland) that always feel guilty for their president… But I was really disgusted with all the french bashing stuff, especially when the politic was to ignore germans and to blame french.
Anyway it is time to move on, and maybe your next president will be a presidente ?(a woman). Like maybe France also…

I m french and I m sorry but your comments make me laugh a lot… in fact we are all the same, In my country , there are french that I hate and french that I like, like in all countries….and sorry to say that, but french aren’t snob, most of them aren’t really polite…. stop prejudices ! & peace ^^

I love masamania and I have for a very long time but up to the recent update, I didn’t get why Masa didn’t offer the larger picture quality anymore . . . Was it because of bandwidth problem or it was just an hassle ?

Mmm…Yeah, it seems like such an inappropriate thing to say – especially in public! When I was learning the Japanese/Chinese counting system like ‘man’ = 10,000, i thought it was really confusing and useless too. But it’s really just cultural differences and I mean…maybe the French think that the counting system in Japan is hard too! By criticizing other nation’s systems tho, it just seems really close minded and haughty.

Hi Masa!
How’s going?
I tried to get in your website the past week and i couldn’t…there were no website at all….i wondered what happened to your website…and now finally i know….new redesign….quite cool! congratulations!
So anyway, what’s the deal with french language? That Mr. Ishihara seemed to be a quite xenophobic character. I think nobody should support him on those statements…it sounds very racist…and i hate racist ppl…French is cool…as my 2nd native language…i’m proud to speak french and i have nothing to have shame about…
Anyway, i hope he will pay for this offense…
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Masa, it’s good to have you back with such nice report and new update, don’t never die because your blog is the best on the internet!
greetings from Valparaiso